Polls stalled in Kohistan: Inayatullah

Elections to take place in 24 districts as per schedule

PESHAWAR: Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan said LG polls will not be held in Kohistan due to litigation over the bifurcation.

Talking to the media at a local hotel on Wednesday, Khan said elections will be held in 24 districts as per schedule.

“The delimitation of Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan is sub judice at the Peshawar High Court,” he said, explaining the reason. The minister said polls will be held in Kohistan as soon as the court of law decides upon the subject of bifurcation.



Elaborating on the LG poll preparations, Khan said the delimitation of councils and redefining of administrative divisions across the province is complete.

Flanked by secretary delimitation Sajjad Gul and LG law committee member Iqbal Khalil, Khan rubbished claims of “organised pre-poll rigging” and said the opposition resorted to a hue and cry after foreseeing its defeat in the polls. The LG minister said the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is the first in the country to formulate the “perfect” LG set-up. The ruling parties fulfilled their promises once the Supreme Court (SC) gave the green light to delimitation in K-P.

Biometrics

Following the SC’s ruling, the K-P government issued a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan on November 22, 2014, saying the province was ready to host the polls if at least one test case of biometric polling is implemented. Citing administrative and financial constraints, the ECP had turned the proposal down. Subsequently, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Khan met the ECP K-P commissioner in December 2014, and decided to conduct polls nonetheless in May 2015.

Redefined

Sharing details of the delimitation process, Gul said a total of 39,806 representatives will be elected from 3,501 village and neighbourhood councils and 2,002 union councils, including 1,001 tehsil UCs, across the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2015.